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National Lawyers Guild Calls for Immediate and Independent Investigation into Assassination of Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah by FBI Agents in Dearborn
For Immediate ReleaseContact: Paige Cram, Communications Coordinator, 212-679-5100, ext. 15, communications@nlg.org
New York—The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) calls for an immediate and independent investigation into the FBI’s fatal shooting on October 28 of Islamic leader Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah in Dearborn, Michigan. The FBI killed him during a series of raids of the Masjid Al-Haqq Mosque by federal and local law enforcement officials in which 11 others were arrested. While mainstream media outlets are calling the killing and arrests a counter-terrorism operation, the raids arose out of criminal complaints containing no specific allegations of violations of federal law or acts of terrorism.
All reports from local residents and community leaders indicate that Imam Abdullah and Mosque members were dedicated to improving the community, feeding hungry neighborhood residents and helping young people in need, even letting many sleep in the mosque during inclement weather.
By publicizing the killing and arrests as related to terrorism, absent any such allegations in the complaint, the FBI seems to be engaging in the same tactics used in its Counter Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO), in which it spied on, infiltrated and disrupted political movements. Imam Abdullah had a close relationship with Imam Jamil Abdullah al-Amin, formerly known as H. Rap Brown, who was a field organizer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and later served as national chairman of the Black Panther Party (BPP).
The FBI and mainstream media blamed the organizing work of SNCC for the urban rebellions in over 200 cities in the late 1960s. The Black Panther Party was COINTELPRO’s primary target, but it targeted a vast array of others, including Martin Luther King. In light of these events, we cannot trust the claim that COINTELPRO has been abandoned. Many have been imprisoned on spurious charges—Al-Amin, for example, maintains his innocence in the deaths of Atlanta law-enforcement officers and has sought an appeal of his case. Reports indicated that he has been harassed and placed in isolation in the Georgia prison system. Over two dozen BPP members were killed by law enforcement between 1968 and 1971.
The National Lawyers Guild advocated on behalf of, and represented, members of the BPP and other political organizations. The FBI tried to have the Guild labeled as a subversive organization, and for many years spied on and infiltrated the association and its individual members.
Guild president David Gespass said, “It took more than twenty years to prove in court that Fred Hampton and Mark Clark were targeted and murdered by the FBI and Chicago police. We cannot wait that long for the truth of what happened to Imam Abdullah.”
The National Lawyers Guild was founded in 1937 and is the oldest and largest public interest/human rights bar organization in the United States. Its headquarters are in New York and it has chapters in every state.
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For Immediate Release
Contact: Paige Cram, Communications Coordinator, 212-679-5100, communications@nlg.org
New York--Seventeen human rights and civil rights organizations and 45 prominent lawyers and civic leaders have sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder last week urging him to appoint a special independent prosecutor to investigate and prosecute Bush officials and lawyers involved in setting illegal interrogation policies.
Holder had expanded the mandate of Justice Department lawyer John Durham to include a preliminary investigation but limited Durham’s focus to a handful of interrogators who exceeded the limits set by the “torture memos.”
The groups and individuals stressed that the special prosecutor should come from outside the Department of Justice and not limit the investigation to low-level operatives, but “should investigate and prosecute all those who ordered, approved, justified, abetted or carried out the torture and abuse.”
The letter cites “political pressure” which has “led to [Holder’s] office taking too narrow an approach to the investigation.”
Signatories of the letter include the National Lawyers Guild, Center for Constitutional Rights, U.S. Human Rights Network, and Psychologists for Social Responsibility, as well as prominent torture survivor Sister Dianna Ortiz. Also signing is the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, the American Association of Jurists and many other international bar associations. They urge Holder to “hold firm against any attempts by former Vice President Dick Cheney, the CIA directors, and the media to silence those who demand that the United States hold accountable those who have committed and authorized torture.”
Both the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and the Geneva Conventions “expressly require the United States to either extradite or initiate prosecution of persons who are reasonably accused,” the letter says, adding “this is a legal obligation.”
“Whether actionable intelligence was gained is not the issue,” the letter in conclusion reminds the Attorney General, and says that he cannot “pick and choose those laws you will enforce.”
Founded in 1937, the National Lawyers Guild is the oldest and largest public interest/human rights bar organization in the United States. Its headquarters are in New York, and it has chapters in every state.
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For Immediate Release—September 25, 2009
Contact: Paige Cram, Communications Coordinator, communications@nlg.org, 609-668-0645
Pittsburgh—National Lawyers Guild members witnessed first-hand yesterday the unwarranted display and use of force by police in residential neighborhoods, often far from any protest activity.
Police deployed chemical irritants, including CS gas, and long-range acoustic devices (LRAD) in residential neighborhoods on narrow streets where families and small children were exposed. Scores of riot police formed barricades at many intersections throughout neighborhoods miles away from the downtown area and the David Lawrence Convention Center. Outside the Courtyard Marriott in Shadyside, police deployed smoke bombs in the absence of protest activity, forcing bystanders and hotel residents to flee the area.
Later, while some protests were ending, riot-clad officers surrounded an area at the University of Pittsburgh, creating an ominous spectacle that some described as akin to Kent State. Guild legal observers witnessed police chasing and arresting many uninvolved students.
Among other questionable tactics, officers from dozens of law enforcement agencies lacked easily-identifiable badges, impeding citizens’ ability to register complaints.
Heidi Boghosian, executive director of the National Lawyers Guild, said: “Accountability and chain of command is virtually impossible to establish given the lack of visible individual identifying badges on officers. The small, paper armband badges that law enforcement are wearing are difficult to read, and many wore black chest coverings with absolutely no identifying information. We’ve seen many law enforcement personnel, including Pittsburgh Police Department officers, deliberately covering up the arm IDs by rolling their shirt sleeves up over them.”
The National Lawyers Guild is a progressive bar association, founded in 1937, with chapters in every state. Its national mass defense program includes education about laws and practices that affect individuals engaging in dissent, criminal defense of protesters and civil litigation to curb unconstitutional police practices, and its legal observing program. Resources detailing police tactics are available on the Guild’s website, www.nlg.org, including Punishing Protest and The Assault on Free Speech, Public Assembly, and Dissent.
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National Lawyers Guild to Send Legal Observers to Monitor Law Enforcement at G-20 Summit Protests in Pittsburgh
For Immediate Release—September 14, 2009Contact: Heidi Boghosian, Executive Director, 917-239-4999
Paige Cram, Communications Coordinator, 212-679-5100, ext. 15
City’s Unique Layout, and Presence of 2,000 National Guard Soldiers and 4,000 Officers Pose Potential Risk of Injury to Protesters
New York--The National Lawyers Guild is sending trained legal observers to the G-20 Summit protests in Pittsburgh from September 22-26, 2009, where thousands are expected to converge to protest financial mismanagement that led to the global meltdown and resulting job cuts and poverty. Established over 40 years ago, the Guild’s legal observing program provides lawyers and law students to monitor incidents of police misconduct and infringements on the right to engage in lawful protest. Guild observers at previous National Special Security Events have provided a presence to assure protesters that unlawful police practices will not go unchallenged, and to gather information for possible litigation.
Pittsburgh’s particular layout, including 446 bridges, promises to complicate enforcement of a security perimeter and may exacerbate a trend that the Guild has documented of law enforcement overreaction to individuals trying to exercise their First Amendment right to assembly.
Executive Director Heidi Boghosian says, “The dual threat in Pittsburgh is its intricate city layout and the extraordinary level of militarized law enforcement accompanying a so-called ‘National Special Security Event.’ Access to the downtown area near the David Lawrence Convention Center is already congested—adding 2,000 National Guard soldiers to the 4,000-officer police force increases the chance that protesters will suffer injury from law enforcement and military. Add the use of less-lethal munitions, horses, motorcycles, and it’s a recipe for disaster. We must avoid a repeat of the April 2009 G-20 in London, and the 2001 G-8 in Genoa, each of which resulted in the death of a protester.”
The National Lawyers Guild is a progressive bar association, founded in 1937, with chapters in every state. Its national mass defense program includes education about laws and practices that affect individuals engaging in dissent, criminal defense of protesters and civil litigation to curb unconstitutional police practices, and its legal observing program. The Guild operates a national hotline, 888-NLG-ECOL (888-654-3465) for individuals who have been targeted by the FBI for their associational activities, including animal welfare and environmental rights activists. Educational resources for activists are available on the Guild’s website, www.nlg.org, including Punishing Protest, Operation Backfire: A Survival Guild for Environmental and Animal Rights Activists, and The Assault on Free Speech, Public Assembly and Dissent.
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For Immediate Release - August 17, 2009
Contact: Paige Cram, NLG Communications Coordinator, 212-679-5100, ext. 15, communications@nlg.org
Long-time member, and former president of the National Lawyers Guild, Doris "Dobby" Brin Walker, died on August 13 at the age of 90. She was widely regarded as a brilliant lawyer and defender of human rights. Perhaps best known for her defense of Angela Davis in the 1970s, Walker had a long history of legal victories for labor, and political activists. She was the first woman president of the National Lawyers Guild and remained very active with the organization.
Walker graduated from the University of California at Berkeley School of Law in 1942, the only woman in her class. She immediately began practicing labor law, but soon quit the practice of law to work in canneries and eventually at the Cutter Laboratories of Berkeley where she quickly became a union leader. Fired from Cutter because of her organizing activities and membership in the Communist Party, Walker and her union fought for reinstatement all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Returning to the practice of law, Walker represented Smith Act defendants in California during the height of McCarthyism. Eventually her work and that of others led to a Supreme Court case, Yates v. U.S., which overturned the convictions of the Smith Act defendants in 1957.
Walker continued to defend political clients targeted by the government, including Korean war opponents John and Sylvia Powell who were charged with sedition, and whose case ended in a mistrial; and Angela Davis, whose criminal case in the 1970s ended in an acquittal.
Walker was honored by the San Francisco Bay Area chapter in 1981 at a testimonial dinner, and regularly attended the California State Bar Conference of Delegates on behalf of the National Lawyers Guild, successfully advocating for and passing a number of progressive resolutions. She was also active in the NLG Labor & Employment Committee, and was Vice-President of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers.
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